Type of site | Online video platform |
---|---|
Headquarters | 901 Cherry Avenue San Bruno, California, United States |
Area served | Worldwide (excluding blocked countries) |
Owner | Alphabet Inc. |
Industry | Internet |
Parent | |
URL |
youtube |
Advertising | Google AdSense |
Launched | September 2020 |
YouTube Shorts is the short-form section of the American video-sharing site YouTube. Shorts focuses on vertical videos at a maximum length of 60 seconds and various features for user interaction. As of March 2024, Shorts have collectively earned over 5 trillion views since the platform was made available to the public on July 13, 2021, which include video views that pre-date the YouTube Shorts feature. [1] Creators earn money based on the amount of views they receive, or through ad revenue. [2] The increased popularity of YouTube Shorts has led to concerns about addiction for teenagers. [3]
YouTube's intent in the creation of YouTube Shorts in 2019 was to compete with TikTok, [4] an online video platform for short clips. The company started by experimenting with vertical videos up to a length of 30 seconds in their own section within the YouTube homepage. [5] This early beta was released only to a small number of people. Shortly after TikTok was banned in India in September 2020, the YouTube Shorts beta was made available in India. [6] In March 2021, the beta was released in the U.S. and was later globally released on July 13, 2021. [7] [8]
In August 2022, YouTube announced plans to make the Shorts feature available on its smart TV app. [9] In December, YouTube published its annual blog post documenting the top videos and creators of the year, with Shorts receiving its own section of the post for the first time. [10]
At the annual Made on YouTube event in New York on September 21, 2023, Google announced YouTube Create, a video editing app designed for YouTube creators, in order to facilitate the growth of Shorts. At launch, the app was only available on Android. [11] [12]
YouTube Shorts presents user-generated vertical or square videos up to 60 seconds long. [13] [14] [15] It allows users to add licensed music and on-screen captions. [6] Viewers can scroll through an endless feed of videos. [7] [16] Although intended to be watched on smartphones, YouTube Shorts can be viewed on all other devices. [17]
YouTube Shorts includes features that are similar to those of TikTok, such as live videos, “collabs”, easy editing tools, and playlists. [4] It also includes tools that edit long-form YouTube videos into YouTube Shorts. [4] YouTube Shorts offers creators the ability to interact with viewers by responding to comments with additional videos, a feature primarily made popular by TikTok. [18] Shorts creators can also use stickers to interact with their audience through formats such as Q&As. [4] The Financial Times reports that fewer than 10 percent of creators use YouTube's editing tools for Shorts. [19] Many use TikTok's tools instead, though videos with TikTok branding are downgraded from YouTube's platform. [19]
YouTube Shorts added a feature that sends default reminders to users ages 13 to 17 to take a break or go to bed due to the increase in young users. [3] There is currently no measure to restrict the use of the application. [3]
Since its inception in 2019, the usage of YouTube Shorts has continuously increased. In September 2022, Alphabet announced that YouTube Shorts generated over 30 billion views daily. [2] The number of monthly users also increased from 1.5 billion in 2022 to 2 billion as of 2023. [3]
The popularity of YouTube Shorts has caused some concerns within the company, with some believing that it will "cannibalize" YouTube's long-form video content. [19] YouTube's official response is that Shorts is designed to be an additional format option for creators. [19]
In August 2021, YouTube released the YouTube Shorts fund, a system in which the top Shorts creators could get paid for their work. YouTube described this as a way to "monetize and reward creators for their content" and said it would be a $100 million fund distributed throughout 2021 and 2022, similar to TikTok's $1 billion creator fund. [20] YouTube told The Hollywood Reporter that the fund is "just a stopgap until YouTube develops a long-term monetization and support tool for short-form creators". [21] [22] [23] [24]
In September 2022, YouTube announced that Shorts would become part of the YouTube Partner Program starting in February 2023. [2] [25] [26] The program allows eligible creators to receive a share of the ad revenue. [2] Partnered YouTube channels can also utilize the 'members' and 'supers' features that allow users to pay a monthly subscription for the content or a one time donation respectively. [27]
YouTube Shorts creators receive a percentage of ad money earned on ads that play before and after their videos similar to YouTube. [28] Creators on YouTube Shorts earn 45 percent of the ad money, while creators on YouTube earn 55 percent. [28]
According to the YouTube policies, creators who upload content with some degree of copyright infringement, non-original content, or other violations of the community guidelines will not be eligible for monetization. [29]
Researchers from the Guizhou University of Finance and Economics and Western Michigan University found that short-form videos like YouTube Shorts and TikTok may make it easier for young adults and children to develop addictive behavior because short-form videos provide "short bursts of thrills." [30] These researchers found that college students in the U.S. and China watch short-form videos for entertainment, knowledge, and to build social identities. [3]
The Wall Street Journal reported that some parents are concerned about the effects of short-form videos on their children, as there is no way to disable YouTube Shorts or set limits. [3] When children watch short-form videos, they learn to expect continual stimulation and fast-paced changes, which can cause problems when engaging in activities that require greater focus, such as reading. [3]
Recent studies highlighted the connection between short-form videos such as YouTube Shorts and the brain's reward system, specifically dopamine release. According to Dr.Anna Lembke, a psychiatrist and chief of Stanford University's dual diagnosis addiction clinic, brief attention-grabbing videos act as powerful stimuli triggering dopamine surges akin to other addictive behaviors. [31] The rapid and easily consumable nature of short-form videos can elicit high levels of dopamine; since dopamine serves as a motivator rather than a direct source of pleasure, individuals are compelled to seek rewarding activities and become addicted to them. Such neurochemical responses lead to addictive patterns and behaviors, entering a vicious cycle. Digital addiction can lead to shorter attention spans and slower cognitive processing.